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Meet the Nasalnaut

Posted by michael on from the nose-knows dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "George Aldrich works at NASA and is not an astronaut. Instead, he's a 'master sniffer.' He tests everything that goes up in space on the shuttle or on the ISS for smelliness, from tennis shoes to teddy bears, and from refrigerators to socks or mascara. Why? Because things smell different in spacecrafts which experience a full day/night cycle every 90 minutes. And bad odors into a spacecraft can even lead to the abortion of a mission, like it happened to a Russian mission back in 1976. Wired Magazine tells us more about NASA's nasalnaut, a man whose colleagues call "Most Smella Fella" and has performed 771 flawless smelling missions. This overview contains more details and selected excerpts from a previous interview with Aldrich given to New Scientist. It also includes a picture showing how the NASA's nasalnaut smells things."

13 of 229 comments (clear)

  1. You'd think... by jwthompson2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    that Febreze would be a cheaper solution...

    --
    Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. -Martin Luther
    1. Re:You'd think... by GOD_ALMIGHTY · · Score: 4, Funny

      According to this article, you'd get such a Fabreze headache that the boil-off of your bodily fluids via rapid decompression would seem like relief.

      --
      Arrogance is Confidence which lacks integrity. -- me
  2. Somebody had to say it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    He should post his profile on Dogster.com. Sniff. Sniff.

  3. Competency by Guy+Innagorillasuit · · Score: 5, Funny

    It certainly sounds like he nose what he's doing.

  4. How exactly does something smell "flawless"? by bad+enema · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's a pretty vague word to describe a smell.

    Imagine that - the perfect smell. Eau de Space - available in 75 ml bottles.

  5. Houston!!! by plams · · Score: 5, Funny

    Jack just slipped a stinker! Awful egg-ish odor! Requesting permission to abort mission!

  6. Top 10 Problem Smells in Space by AtariAmarok · · Score: 5, Funny

    10. 34-year-old Tang someone left in orbit after one of the apollo missions
    9. Dmitri's socks
    8. Even in space, monkeys fling poo
    7. When Galactus forgets to use deoderant, half the quadrant knows about it
    6. Someone left the windows in MIR open again
    5. Venturing too close to the Onion Planet
    4. "The Phantom Menace"
    3. Smell bits of alien underwear (thank you Douglas Adams)
    2. Saddam's WMDs hidden on Mars (see today's Mars news items)
    1. And the number one stinky problem in space: "Star Trek: Voyager"

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  7. Re:Wow! by christopherfinke · · Score: 4, Funny
    I wonder if he has to prepare himself in any way before he carries out one of these "missions".
    I believe it's called the "farmer's blow."
  8. aww by Digitus1337 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Do the astronauts get lonely or something? Teddy bears?

  9. excuse by Bender+Unit+22 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I've got four grandchildren and when my wife's changing their diapers I try to stay far enough away from her to avoid the smell, because I try not to shock my nose.

    Who wouldn't love to have that excuse.
    Sorry, no nose, no job. I have to protect it.

  10. Re:what about by real+gumby · · Score: 5, Funny
    astronaut flatulence... what's done about it?
    I don't know about these days, but this was one of the criteria in the selection of the initial astronauts in the 1960s. I believe this was written up in The Right Stuff, along with the comment "what a way to wash out."

    I'm not sure how they measured it either, but it can't have been pleasant. I think it involved a tube...

  11. Mmmm tampons by Stile+65 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Aldrich has smelled stuffed animals, cameras, film, grease, oil, tampons, toothpaste, aftershave, an IBM laptop, cosmonaut Alexander Lazutkin's photo album, and Disposable Absorption Containment Trunks (adult diapers for space walks).

    Perfect for anyone with a weird fetish. :)

    --
    I claim first use of "Error No. 0B" - or "No. 0B error." It'll be the new ID 10T!
  12. Why is this necessary? by oGMo · · Score: 4, Funny

    And here I thought NASA had technology to take care of this remotely.

    --

    Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage